Back pain can be a chronic, extremely painful and often debilitating experience for sufferers, resulting in a highly compromised lifestyle and often contributes to long term absences from the workplace. There are many causes of back pain, such as injury, disease, obesity, overuse, aging, childbirth, and the like.
In many instances, back and other musculo-skeletal pains are due to pelvic dislocation. Pelvic dislocation is a common occurrence, and is medically identified by observing, amongst other indicators, leg length discrepancy.
Pelvic dislocation results in compromised horizontality of the pelvis, and is overcome by realigning the pelvis with the horizontal plane to enable the vertebrae of the spine to sit squarely above the pelvis. In this way, a natural and healthy skeletal physiology is obtained.
Amongst other problems encountered by sufferers of a mis-aligned pelvis is a side-to-side tilt of the pelvis, resulting in the segments of the spine sitting on an oblique angled pelvis, rather than a proper horizontal pelvis. This inevitably results in distortion of the spinal system with resultant aches and pains.
Without proper realignment of the pelvis to restore pelvic stability and proper angularity, the spinal system distortion and aches and pains resulting from a misaligned pelvis are unlikely to be overcome.
Although pelvic instability is often diagnosed, few therapists are able to effectively treat such conditions and make the necessary adjustments to the pelvis in order to return it to its proper alignment. When pelvic misalignment has been diagnosed, a treatment session with a chiropractor or the like may well result in proper realignment of the pelvis. However, more often than not, the pelvic dysfunction will return shortly after the session is over.
Prior art devices exist, the use of which is intended to alleviate back pain by means of associated exercises. However, such devices and their associated exercises are often ineffective, or difficult for the patient to carry out in private without the aid of a therapist present to assist, or are so difficult to use or unwieldy that prolonged use of the device is not practical for the patient.
Therefore, there exists a need for a device which is simple to use and can be used by a patient, either independently of a therapist, or in combination with existing therapist supervised treatments, to effect pelvic realignment in an effective way, such that repeated performance of the associated exercises results in alleviation of back pain coupled with progressive realignment of the pelvis to restore its natural and proper alignment.
The present invention seeks to address the problems of the prior art.